Just a lovely, simple Lemon Cake recipe – perfect tea time treat. You’ll love the bright lemon flavour, that it’s so beautifully moist and only requires one bowl and a whisk!
Finished with a lemon glaze, this is a simple cake that you can whip up on short notice. Yoghurt keeps the cake moist so it lasts for days and days! It’s the same batter used in this Blueberry Lemon Cake and Strawberry Cake.
Lemon Cake recipe
This Lemon Cake is one of my emergency quick and easy cake recipes, something I can get in the oven super quickly when I’m short on time. There’s no creaming of butter required, it’s a quick dump-and-mix cake. (When I’m longer on time I might instead plump for this sponge-based Lemon Cake with Fluffy Lemon Frosting …)
The “secret ingredient” in this is yoghurt. Yoghurt is a brilliant baking ingredient because it thickens the batter which means less flour required which = more moist cake. 🙂
I love how golden brown this cake is straight out of the oven. It almost glows!
Lemon Glaze
In the spirit of this being a simple teacake, I keep the frosting simple too. I just use a Glaze or a quick Cream Cheese Frosting.
For the glaze, I like to make the glaze a bit thicker than typical glazes because it adds that extra oomph of sweetness and stickiness to the cake, as opposed to cutting it in half and sandwiching it with something.
Added bonus: I love how the drips look and how the glaze isn’t see through.
If a glaze isn’t your thing or you want more frosting, I’ve also included my quick Cream Cheese Frosting. This is different to the usual Cream Cheese Frosting I use for things like Red Velvet and Carrot Cake which requires a stand mixer and a good 7 minutes of fast beating.
In the spirit of the simplicity of this quick Lemon Cake recipe, I use my shortcut Cream Cheese Frosting which I make simply by mixing spreadable Cream Cheese (comes in tubs, not blocks) with lemon juice and icing sugar. No stand mixer required, no need to even wait to soften the cream cheese. Just mix it up with a wooden spoon, dollop and spread. 🙂
You know that pretty cake decorations aren’t my thing. I’d probably spend more time styling a giant plate of slow cooked meat than I would spend decorating a towering cake! 😂
So in my usual form, I’ve kept it nice and simple – just some lemon slices and a few sprigs of baby’s breath from a bunch I happened to have.
This cake may be simple but in all honesty, it’s probably the cake I made most often last year. I actually intended to share it earlier this year, but then I got all excited because blueberries came into season so I published the Blueberry Lemon Cake instead (same cake, but with blueberries).
So I sat on this Lemon Cake recipe for a couple of months until an adequate amount of time had passed. And finally, I’m sharing it! – Nagi x
More quick, emergency cakes
No creaming butter, no stand mixer for any of these!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Watch how to make this lemon cake!
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
Glazed Lemon Cake recipe
Ingredients
Wet:
- 2/3 cup / 165 ml vegetable or canola oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ tbsp grated lemon rind (1 large or 2 medium lemons)
- ¼ cup / 65 ml fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup / 250g plain yoghurt (Note 1)
- 1.25 cups / 275g caster sugar (superfine sugar, granulated ok too)
Dry:
- 2 cups/300g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 4 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
Glaze:
- 1 3/4 cup / 210 g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp plain yogurt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan/convection). Grease a 20 cm / 8” cake pan with butter.
- Place Wet ingredients in a bowl. Whisk until combined.
- Sprinkle over flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until smooth – few small lumps is ok.
- Pour into pan – it should be fairly thick but pourable (see video). Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Remove metal ring and cool on rack then glaze.
Glaze:
- Place ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Test down the side of the bowl to get the right thickness, using 1 tsp of yoghurt at a time to thin it out if required. Glaze should drip (slowly, because it’s thick) but not be see through.
- Place rack on a tray or baking paper.
- Pour glaze over the middle of the cake, gently push towards the edges so it drips down the sides.
- Let it set for 1 hour before transferring to a serving plate.
- See note for how I did the lemon slices in the photos, and the alternative quick Cream Cheese Frosting.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
You can just imagine the thoughts running through that furry head:
“Will I make it to the door??”
“How hard would it be to scoff it down on the run??”
“I wonder if she’s going to frost it? 😳 Maybe I should wait…”
Hi Nagi
This looks yummy and I cannot wait to make it. However I have the usual cup conversion problem here in the UK – you give metric measurements for all except the oil – can you convert to ml please? I really do not get the cup thing, when I look up conversions they are different for different ingredients, totally confusing to me!
Added! Thanks for picking that up! N x
Thanks for the conversion. I made this yesterday in a tray bake tin, gave it 35 mins in oven and it is DELICIOUS and will certainly be my most used cake recipe. As I just wanted it for the two of us as what my mother called a cut-and-come-again cake I did not frost it but just gave it a dusting of icing sugar. And yes, we did cut and come again!
Will using a Bundt pan make much of a difference to bake time etc?
Hi Melinda! From memory it takes the same time 🙂 N x
Now I’ve run across some drips in my time, but your Lemon Glaze is the best yet. Incredible images!
Oh, I can totally see the yogurt. That’s how I’d recognize you :).
Ok, about Dozer being recognized more than you. Simple, he’s in every post (which is a good thing). When was the last time we saw an image of you diving into the pool or eyeing a cake ??? Put a big image of that sweet face of yours in every post and you’ll be know throughout the world…
Thanks Ron! Quite a compliment for this non baker to receive! N x
Thank you for my weekend laughter, Ron! Since beautiful Chloe-girl graces most of your blogs you DO have the experience to know 🙂 !
Hi! is the icing sugar the same as powdered sugar? Thank you!
Yes! Thanks for reminding me, adding it! 🙂 N x
Yes.
Hello GORGES! That’s NOT YOU, AM TALKING TO DOZER. GORGES YOUR MUM MANERS WENT OUT THE DOOR, SOYA SAUCEAND YOGHURT, WEARING AND NOT EATING. What is going on with you woman?? You are back in City NOT IN THE BUSH…. HONOSLY woman what are we going to do with you? Would Love to see your Dear Mum next to you waiting / cleaning you in public. This is soooo FUNY !! As for cake would like some NOW, RIGHT HERE AND NOW. No sleep, warm, TOMMOROW hot, windy day and night, temp want go down below 30 C before 02 AM, NOT HAPPY JANE….!!have good w/ end and oh WE DO NIT WANT CELEBRETY LOOKING LIKE MR D…. ‘S BREAKFAST!!
OMG Vera! IT IS CRAZY HOT AND WINDY TODAY! I’M DYING – AND SO IS DOZER!!!
Looks good. I will make it
Hope you do give it a go Mary Ellen! It’s so good! 🙂 N x
Turns out I didn’t even have sour cream! Ha!! Went to the store and got yogurt. Came out perfect! My husband is a huge lemon fan and he wasn’t disappointed! Yum!!!
That photo of the cake with the glaze drips–and the one of the slice following–is an exceptionally good picture. I’m drooling just looking at this. Good job, Nagi!
Thank you Steve! I always have to “try harder” with baked goods, I find it so much easier to shoot stews! 😂
I like have to make this cake tomorrow, but won’t get to the store. I have everything except plain yogurt. Can I use sour cream do you think??
Hi Nancy! Another reader just made it with sour cream and reported great success! 🙂 N x
Nagi, you are so REAL! Who among us hasn’t paraded out, oblivious to gobs of questionable foodstuffs on our person? Just means we are totally invested in our pursuits, no? Thanks, too, for pics of the divine Dozer! You mentioning soy sauce on your top just reminded me of The Doze with spaghetti draped on his chest fur! You two were made for each other!
On another note: Have you come across or know of a use for small cast iron pans? Rectangle, oval and little square handled pan that I got from Daiso in Vancouver? They were just too cute to pass up. All I use them for is to weigh down bacon frying in the skillet or also to make little omelets. Any other uses?
P.S. Your recipes are always the hit of my day…all so very umami tasty and yum! Your Mom’s too!
Hi Vivian! So glad you can relate 🙈 Oooh, lots of uses! You could make mini cakes like this, depending on size but with my small pans this would take around 25 minutes to bake 🙂 Or how about corn bread? Or even try any muffin mixture! N xx
Thanks for your response, Nagi. The cake and/or cornbread batter would no doubt spill over the edges as the pans are only about 1/2″ high. The rectangular one works well for Japanese rolled omelets though. Perhaps the little square one would do for making a single square fried egg. I’ll experiment some more.
I make skillet apple pies, Southern Living recipe.
That would be a good idea except that these little pans are only about 1/2″ high on the sides. I’m sure they are intended for a specific purpose but so far haven’t sourced it. Thanks, though, Mary. Maybe very skinny pies, like hand pies would work.
Great cake recipe tks Nagi. .because of all the back and forth chit chat (Australia -Canada) you is know j a diabetic ..so I will use all.the recipe but replace.fhe sweetner with a product called Swerve..will ake this in the coming weeks and send you a picture
BY THE WAY DOZER YOU HAVE GREAT WILL POWER 👍if Luca was there guess what CAN GONE INTO HIS MOUTH 🐕👍
Would that cake FIT in his mouth??! 🤪